āļø What is Serverless Architecture?
Serverless architecture is a cloud-native design pattern where you write and deploy code without managing the underlying servers. Your app is split into small, event-driven functions that scale automatically and only run when triggered.
ā āServerlessā doesn’t mean no servers ā it means you don’t manage them.
š§ How Serverless Works
You write functions (e.g.,
sendEmail
,getUserData
)Deploy to a cloud provider like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Vercel, or Netlify
The provider:
Handles provisioning, scaling, patching
Executes your function on demand
Bills only for usage, not uptime
š Key Benefits
Feature | Description |
---|---|
šø Pay-as-you-go | Billed per invocation/memory/time |
š¦ Auto-scaling | Handles thousands of concurrent requests automatically |
š Zero server maintenance | No patching, provisioning, or scaling needed |
ā” Fast time to market | Focus only on writing code |
š§© Event-driven | Great for APIs, background jobs, file processing, etc. |
š§° Popular Serverless Providers
Provider | Service Name |
---|---|
š” AWS | Lambda |
šµ Google Cloud | Cloud Functions |
š£ Azure | Azure Functions |
š¢ Vercel | Serverless Functions |
š Netlify | Netlify Functions |
š¤ Cloudflare | Workers |
š§ Common Use Cases
š Authentication handlers
š¤ File/image uploads & processing
š” APIs (REST/GraphQL)
š§ Sending emails/SMS
š§® Background tasks (ETL, data processing)
ā° Scheduled jobs (CRON)
š Payment processing hooks (Stripe, Razorpay)
š ļø Example (AWS Lambda + API Gateway)
Lambda Function (Node.js):
exports.handler = async (event) => {
return {
statusCode: 200,
body: JSON.stringify({ message: "Hello from Lambda!" }),
};
};
Triggered by: HTTP request via API Gateway
āļø Pros vs. Cons
ā Pros | ā Cons |
---|---|
No infrastructure management | Cold starts (on first request) |
Auto-scaling | Harder to debug |
Low cost for small/medium workloads | Stateful apps are complex |
Built-in redundancy | Vendor lock-in risk |
Fast deployment | Limited execution time (~15 mins on AWS) |
š¦ Serverless vs Traditional Backend
Feature | Serverless | Traditional Backend |
---|---|---|
Deployment | Per function | Full app |
Scaling | Automatic | Manual or via autoscaling groups |
Cost | Pay per execution | Pay for uptime |
Architecture | Stateless | Stateful or hybrid |
DevOps | Minimal | Required |
š§ Popular Frameworks for Serverless Apps
Framework | Description |
---|---|
š§± Serverless Framework | Works with AWS, Azure, Google, etc. |
ā” Vercel | Perfect for Next.js and frontend hosting |
š„ Firebase Functions | Great for mobile/web apps |
š Netlify Functions | Great for JAMstack sites |
š¦ Begin | Lightweight, for AWS Lambda |
š§Ŗ Architect | Fast development with AWS Lambda |
š Resources to Learn More
š” AWS Lambda Docs
ā Summary
Great for: APIs, microservices, automation, backend tasks
Not ideal for: Long-running, stateful apps (e.g., video conferencing, game servers)
Best tool for JAMstack and modern scalable apps